Meh....there is really no telling whether this happened or not. Whenever story contains "Egypt army/police" + "spokesman", BS detectors should be in the red. Whatever, Secom needs to fix this ish and get my internet back up to it's normal frustratingly slow speed.

modesto:Meh....there is really no telling whether this happened or not. Whenever story contains "Egypt army/police" + "spokesman", BS detectors should be in the red. Whatever, Secom needs to fix this ish and get my internet back up to it's normal frustratingly slow speed.

This was the Med, which I don't think is nearly as nice, except that you can actually go down to the ruins of the Library of Alexandria, which would be pretty sweet. There's lots of different dives you can do around the Red Sea and Gulf of Arabia (Dahab is a fantastic town) for many levels. I had never been interested in diving but the reefs over there, along with the laid back nature of the Sinai, makes me really wish i had 2 weeks to laze around and take a cert course.

I can only imagine what the new islamic government could get away with with limited media and internet access to let the outside world in.

Very little. You assume they actually have a functioning power mechanism. Really more like some dudes in a room. You know, Arabs don't necessarily want or need the west's monitoring or approval to assert their own rights.

This was the Med, which I don't think is nearly as nice, except that you can actually go down to the ruins of the Library of Alexandria, which would be pretty sweet. There's lots of different dives you can do around the Red Sea and Gulf of Arabia (Dahab is a fantastic town) for many levels. I had never been interested in diving but the reefs over there, along with the laid back nature of the Sinai, makes me really wish i had 2 weeks to laze around and take a cert course.

If I ever get to dive again, I'd go the the Underwater Museum in Caesarea, Israel. "It's not your ordinary museum tour. Visitors float from one 'exhibit' to the next, marveling in silence at the untouched remains of a once-glorious harbor: a Roman shipwreck, a ruined lighthouse, an ancient breakwater, the port's original foundations, anchors, pedestals." http://www.sacred-destinations.com/israel/caesarea-underwater-museum. h tm

heypete:dittybopper: It was probably the British, hoping to intercept German telecommunications traffic.

Or the Americans, in Operation Ivy Bells.

The intention there wasn't to cut the lines, but to merely listen to them.

The British cut the German telegraph lines in order to prevent the Germans from using them. When the Germans found a work-around, the British didn't interfere any longer, because they rightly judged that the ability to read the German diplomatic traffic was more important than stopping it outright.

dittybopper:The intention there wasn't to cut the lines, but to merely listen to them.

The British cut the German telegraph lines in order to prevent the Germans from using them. When the Germans found a work-around, the British didn't interfere any longer, because they rightly judged that the ability to read the German diplomatic traffic was more important than stopping it outright.

Ah, I thought the British did it in order to force the Germans to use wireless communications which could be intercepted. Ivy Bells was also meant to intercept communications, though without disrupting them. Sorry for any confusion. :)

heypete:dittybopper: The intention there wasn't to cut the lines, but to merely listen to them.

The British cut the German telegraph lines in order to prevent the Germans from using them. When the Germans found a work-around, the British didn't interfere any longer, because they rightly judged that the ability to read the German diplomatic traffic was more important than stopping it outright.

Ah, I thought the British did it in order to force the Germans to use wireless communications which could be intercepted. Ivy Bells was also meant to intercept communications, though without disrupting them. Sorry for any confusion. :)

I've read that same justification also, that they cut the cables to force the Germans to use wireless so that they could intercept them, but there is one small problem with that:

The British didn't have an organization capable of intercepting or decoding them when they cut the cables.

The real reason they did it was to fark with Germany and make things harder for them. Only later did they come to the realization that it was better to let them communicate, and to intercept and decode those communications, than it was to try and prevent them from communication.

/Ex-SIGINT weenie, and a bit of a student of the history of that sort of thing.